The Cochran Effect: Public sentiment never influenced Johnnie or made him sell out his clients.

By Chris Stevenson

Cry over the Pope all you want to, my Pope was Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. It seems strange to me that he became the nation's best known attorney during the same trial that fellow defense F. Lee Bailey-the previous best known attorney-became vilified; the infamous "Trial of the Century," case no. BA097211, the People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson. But that's all part of the specter of emotions that the mere mention of anything relating to Simpson brings to many. To tell you the truth, it's not just the trial alone that bothered me, it's Simpson's arrest that leaves me scratching my head, the obsession by the California judicial system to prosecute Simpson and only Simpson. There was no second suspect or even the possibility of one being considered, no sense of optional thinking by either the so-called experts within the legal investigators or the LAPD. Was OJ the real killer? If so, did he have help? Once again these avenues were never explored. Was OJ really innocent? Who knows.

OJ opponents were perfectly willing to hold Cochran's telegenic tactics against him, while concurrently ignoring the fact that the direction of the whole tragedy seemed to be driven by the national media, and LA law enforcement. What we got was a trial initiated by the simple-minded, and the most unrespected verdict in US history. Little thought or analysis is given as to why Cochran even decided to sign on with Simpson's "Dream Team."Few knew that by the time OJ called Cochran from county jail and begged him to join his legal team, that Cochran was as battle-tested as he was. As a former clerk and deputy in the DA's office in the early '60's to establishing his own practice in the mid-'60's he became wary of defending police on "resisting arrest" charges, and eventually began defending Blacks on police brutality cases: "I learned that prosecutors and law enforcement officials convinced of their own righteousness, would do anything to make the system yield the 'right result,'" quotes the LA Times from excerpts of one of Cochran's two books. The "right result" as in one Bloody glove found at the murder scene, and the other found in front of OJ's home, and a lifetime of observing cop-tampering from both sides of the court.

Few "experts" wish to take a 2nd look at how their case was lost past they're blind vehemence of an acquittal by a mostly Black jury simply perceived as 'looking out for one of their own,' and the smooth-talking Black attorney. The book "The Darden Dilemma" edited by Ellis Cose has an essay by Marcia Ann Gillespie called "Reasonable Doubt" where she brings out "Christopher Darden (OJ's famed prosecutor of whom Cose' book is named after) and Marcia Clark lost their case against OJ Simpson the moment they chose not to believe that race is always a factor, they chose to be among the shocked and surprised... and we witnessed what comes of arrogance and ignorance in the courtroom." The two prosecutors simply played to the sentiments of much of White America, conservative America, and they lost.

Though Johnnie Cochran won the case for OJ, he preferred fighting for the cause of what he called the "No-Jays," the poor and working-class mostly Black voiceless victims of injustice from Leonard Deadwyler of LA to Cynthia Wiggins of Buffalo. Some will site how he was taken from us by a brain tumor way before his time, the same as former corporate leverage genius Reginald Lewis ( brain cancer '93). I think he was a great example of a Black lawyer who only knew about winning without compromise.

• Stevenson is a columnist for the Buffalo Criterion, and www.theBrownWatch.com, his column Pointblank can be read at www.voiceoffreedom.com, email comments to Stevenson at pointblankdta@yahoo.com.